White Material (2009)
Country: FR/CAM
Technical: col/2.35:1 106m
Director: Claire Denis
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Christophe Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Isaach De Bankolé, Michel Subor
Synopsis:
In an unnamed African republic a coffee plantation owner refuses to evacuate with her family as French troops withdraw, leaving the country to be fought over by government troops and haphazard rebel forces. Stubbornly she sets about bringing in the crop and preparing the coffee for sale, as her husband manoeuvres behind her back and her son goes quietly berserk.
Review:
A typically elliptical narrative experience from Denis, with editing disguising chronology and an ending that needs some time to digest its implications. It's a bravura work, managing very convincingly to convey what life must be like in these distant places in such situations, with no grandstanding scenes of violence but a far more matter-of-fact approach to peril and mayhem. Huppert dominates the screen nearly every minute, but all the cast do sterling work.
Country: FR/CAM
Technical: col/2.35:1 106m
Director: Claire Denis
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Christophe Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Isaach De Bankolé, Michel Subor
Synopsis:
In an unnamed African republic a coffee plantation owner refuses to evacuate with her family as French troops withdraw, leaving the country to be fought over by government troops and haphazard rebel forces. Stubbornly she sets about bringing in the crop and preparing the coffee for sale, as her husband manoeuvres behind her back and her son goes quietly berserk.
Review:
A typically elliptical narrative experience from Denis, with editing disguising chronology and an ending that needs some time to digest its implications. It's a bravura work, managing very convincingly to convey what life must be like in these distant places in such situations, with no grandstanding scenes of violence but a far more matter-of-fact approach to peril and mayhem. Huppert dominates the screen nearly every minute, but all the cast do sterling work.
Country: FR/CAM
Technical: col/2.35:1 106m
Director: Claire Denis
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Christophe Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Isaach De Bankolé, Michel Subor
Synopsis:
In an unnamed African republic a coffee plantation owner refuses to evacuate with her family as French troops withdraw, leaving the country to be fought over by government troops and haphazard rebel forces. Stubbornly she sets about bringing in the crop and preparing the coffee for sale, as her husband manoeuvres behind her back and her son goes quietly berserk.
Review:
A typically elliptical narrative experience from Denis, with editing disguising chronology and an ending that needs some time to digest its implications. It's a bravura work, managing very convincingly to convey what life must be like in these distant places in such situations, with no grandstanding scenes of violence but a far more matter-of-fact approach to peril and mayhem. Huppert dominates the screen nearly every minute, but all the cast do sterling work.